Anyone who watched the 2000 World Series saw one of the worst base running displays in history. Especially in game one, when the New York Mets literally ran out a rally that cost them the game and quite possibly could have changed the entire outcome of the Series. Who could forget when the Mets’ Timo Perez was on first base and after the batter hit the ball deep left, slowed as he ran between first and second only to be tagged out at home plate because the ball ended up in play. Or how about when Todd Ziele hit a slow grounder to third and didn’t exhaust it because he was in foul territory only to have the ball kicked out just before it reached third and Ziele was ejected while nearly standing in the batter’s box. . Then there was Jay Payton hitting a three-foot roller in front of the plate and he thought it was a foul and stepped into the batter’s box. Yankees catcher Jorge Posada picked it up and tagged out Payton as he held up the runner on second. We also saw Mike Piazza being thrown out of first base in the same game.

What can we teach our young baseball players from this? Base running has always been so underrated in baseball. In youth baseball, some coaches (including me) claim that you can get an extra one to three runs per game with a smart, aggressive base. One year my team won the league championship and a few months into the season I picked up my score book and after looking through it found that my team had been sent off at home 13 times during the season over the course of twenty three games. Probably a record that will never be broken. During the season I didn’t realize we got thrown out that much, but we must have scored an extra 25-30 runs for being aggressive and smart on the bases.

Over the years I have learned that my fastest baserunners are not necessarily my smartest and that slow baserunners can make up for their lack of speed by being smart. But can a team practice smart base running? Are there drills to help even the slowest baserunners? There are, and in a one-hour practice, I always spend ten to fifteen minutes on base running exercises. There are numerous base running drills that we practice. Here is one of them. The first drill we practice is with a man in second or third position with less than two outs and a ground ball is hit to the left side of the infield. We want the runner to advance to the next base when the fielder releases the ball. I have a coach who plays first base and I have a shortstop and a second baseman. The players (or baserunners) line up at second. The coach stands at home plate and hits a ground ball to shortstop or third baseman. The runner on second will bounce off the base and once the fielder drops the ball on his throw to first, he lowers his head and runs to third. The next baserunner on second and the player on third will be the runners on the next ground ball. This is a great exercise and it goes fast. The player who was on third and goes home, goes back to the end of the line on second. A couple of teaching points and things to remember. Teach the baserunners that if they are on second and the ground ball goes to third, they can bounce farther. Same with the runner on third, if the ball is hit to shortstop, he can bounce more than if it were hit to third base. Another teaching point is that the baserunner on third always slides home. There shouldn’t even be a question about it. Also in this drill, have a signal with the fielders like head scratching, and that signals the fielder to fake the throw and catch the runner off base. This is very effective and baserunners learn from this if they are tagged out.

Baserunning is a part of baseball that doesn’t get much attention in practice. The best baserunning teams are those that train their players in practice. Another added benefit for younger players if a coach places an emphasis on running the bases is that they will tend to pay more attention to the game when they are on the bases. Hone your team at base running and you’ll really see how you can become your 10th man on the team and be happy with the benefits.